Nukuri-Johnson On Upswing Heading into Boston

Breakthrough race at NYC Half provides encouragement.

Diane Nukuri-Johnson’s circuitous life as a runner, which will take her to the Boston Marathon on April 15, has had its precocious successes, its travails, and no shortage of surprises. She was a 5000-meter Olympian and a flag bearer for Burundi at age 15 in 2000 in Sydney. She attended the Francophone Games in Canada in 2001 and, in a period of violent strife back home (“it was not safe to be traveling back and forth”), she chose to remain in North America, making her way first to a junior college in Kansas and then to the University of Iowa, where she became a Big Ten 5000-meter champion and married fellow student Alex Johnson.

Nukuri-Johnson, who is 28 and six feet tall, remained in Iowa, working with her college coach, Layne Anderson, and launched a solid professional running career. In 2012, she was at the London Olympics, the flag bearer for Burundi once more, 11 years after she’d last represented that African country internationally. She ran a 2:30:13 marathon, a personal best by more than three minutes and the Burundian record, despite falling in a shower in the Olympic Village and hurting her hip the week before. Five days of physical therapy got her to the starting line.

It’s an exceptional, event-filled life, but her most unexpected moment, in terms of racing, came this year on March 17. At the NYC Half, Kenya’s Caroline Rotich seemed to have indisputably wrapped things up when Nukuri-Johnson, along with Connecticut-born Croatian Lisa Stubic, suddenly found herself alongside Rotich, fighting for first place as the finish line loomed.

“With about 5-K to go, I was trying to hang on,” Nukuri-Johnson remembers. “I thought, ‘This feels fast.’ Once I got to Caroline, and two miles were left, I thought it would come down to whoever has more left in the tank. I felt like I really had a chance.” It was Rotich who had more left, alas, while Nukuri-Johnson placed second in a huge personal best of 1:09:12.

She had never been so close to the top in such august company in a major road race.

”I had really good workouts leading up to New York. I took a long break after the Olympics because I was kind of hurt” with that ailing hip, says Nukuri-Johnson. “I got back a little quicker than I thought I would, so that was a good sign for me. It wasn’t like I was trying too hard to get there.” Heading into the NYC Half, she states, “I could see running under 70 minutes on a good day. But I never could see myself running with two other women and having a chance to win it.

“When I got to the finish line and I saw 1:09:12, I was completely surprised. Even now, when I’m working out [for the Boston Marathon], I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I went 5:17 pace for 13.1 miles.’ I know I did it. I’m very confident that the next couple of years are only going to get better.”

She was an instant running prodigy in Burundi. “I always knew that I had a talent. I only ran three times a week when I was 14 and I still ran 16:30 [for 5-K] back then,” Nukuri-Johnson says. She was 15th in the 5000 at Sydney, but in 2000, she admits, “I don’t think I even knew how big the Olympics were.”

Despite her contentment in Iowa (“I love living here in the U.S.”), Nukuri-Johnson had no doubt that in 2012 in London, she’d be representing Burundi.

“My whole family is there. It’s not about money or anything like that," she says. "I hope that by representing my country I can help other people, especially women, to continue or start running. I feel like I owe it to my country to represent them in everything I can.” Being the flag bearer the second time around, 12 years later, had added significance because “they [Burundians] are the ones that gave me the chance to compete the first time. It meant a lot to go back out there” with the Burundi colors. “I was very proud this time around.”

Before the Olympics, “I got up to 120 miles for two or three weeks,” reports Nukuri-Johnson, but in the build-up to the Boston Marathon, “I didn’t do over 115. But I’ve been doing 100 to 115 since November, good training and quality work. I’m just having just more fun, getting better and PRing every year. But I needed the race in New York to just feel confident, knowing that I actually belong racing up front,” though she quickly adds, “I still have a lot of work to do.” In her preparation, she escaped Iowa’s winter with several weeks of running in the Florida Keys.

Nukuri-Johnson has never marathoned on a course with as much uphill and downhill as Boston, but she’s not particularly concerned about that inexperience. “Iowa City is not flat,” she points out. “I’ve been doing easy runs and long runs that are up and down. Obviously the first 10-K of the NYC Half in Central Park is really hilly and challenging.”

“I don’t even know what the Boston course looks like,” admits Nukuri-Johnson. “I think when you’re ready to run, you can run well anywhere, whether it’s flat or hilly.” But she will arrive in Boston on Wednesday and says, “I’m going to look at the last 10-K or so” of the course.

Her NYC Half was a game-changer. Heading to Boston, Nukuri-Johnson states, “I think I can do really really well. I could surprise myself and other people. I’m so excited to hopefully be in the race [up front] and compete with everyone and see what happens. If it comes down to the last couple of miles and I’m in contact with other people, I have a chance.”